Newsgroup Server Description and its Association with Usenet Services

Within any Usenet system, the newsgroup server is at the core of every single aspect of the service. The newsgroup server and its management drive the completion, retention, and overall performance of a newsgroup service.

Most premium Usenet systems do not actually operate an individual newsgroup server. Instead, they use multiple newsgroup servers and combine their resources to create a virtual server that is extremely robust. Such a configuration is known as a ‘cluster’ or ‘farm’ of newsgroup servers. There are many advantages to this type of configuration, the most important being reliability. If any single server in the farm is disabled in any way, there are still multiple machines that can bear the load until the problem is resolved.

One of the most important aspects of newsgroup server hardware is hard drive space. The hard drive capacity of a newsgroup server correlates directly to the retention time offered with the service. A low capacity newsgroup server could be limited to only a few hours of retention, whereas a server farm like Giganews can boast world class, quality retention, including 3+ years of binary retention and 14+ years of text retention (this is another obvious benefit of operating a server farm).

A newsgroup server’s resources also factor into the connection speed seen by its users. To understand why this might be, it’s important to understand the newsgroup server’s actual internet connection. Just as residential users pay an ISP for access to the internet, newsgroup server operators also have to pay for internet connectivity. This connection is undoubtedly faster than anything available to home users, and the bandwidth and uptime of the connection are guaranteed through a contract. However, even if the actual connection is flawless, the newsgroup server itself must manage all of the users connected to it, and distribute resources to each one. A newsgroup server with inadequate resources might not be able to efficiently handle a large number of users, resulting in slow speeds at the user’s end, even if there is plenty of bandwidth to go around.

These are only a couple of examples of the genuine importance of a capable newsgroup server. Giganews operates the most sophisticated newsgroup servers on the planet. Our clustering strategy enables us to guarantee maximum speed and reliability even during peak usage times. Our newsgroup server is also peered with backbone providers worldwide, meaning that your connection will be as speedy as possible. Giganews provides a speed-testing application that allows any user to gauge their connection to our network. The speed test is available at https://www.giganews.com/performance.html.

Our newsgroup server takes advantage of hundreds of terabytes of storage space, which has pushed our binary and text retention time to incredible levels. A connection to Giganews allows you to access content long after the others have purged it from their newsgroup servers.

Don’t risk disappointment when searching for a newsgroup server. At Giganews, we’re committed to providing the best value for your dollar.